Google Earth Community: ABORA III.'Prehistoric Reed Boat '----Update

Update

Almost immediately after they launched from New York harbor last summer, the crew of the Abora III noticed the 42-foot boat, assembled from reeds, was leaking.

Yet, it traveled admirably nearly 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, following the Gulf Stream, enduring many storms but also encountering beautiful days at sea.

In the end, it was a monster of a storm, lasting 3 1/2 days with winds up to 50 knots and 26-foot waves, that did in the 12-ton sailboat made from Bolivian reed and designed from 10,000-year-old rock drawings.

Dominique Gorlitz, a German botanist who headed the expedition, spoke of the journey yesterday afternoon at a church in Hunterdon County, where he detailed the disappointment of watching the boat tear apart.

"For a long time we felt secure on the craft," Gorlitz said. "But the last storm was too much."

So, after 56 days at sea the 11-member crew abandoned ship, 550 miles short of a planned stop in the Azores and a little more than 1,500 miles short of its final destination in Spain.

But, there was a silver lining as Gorlitz also spoke about the raw beauty of being on a naturally-made boat on clear, moon-less nights at sea.

They modeled their trip on explorers traveling to the New World from Europe and Africa thousands of years before the Vikings, and Gorlitz said it was awe-inspiring to be under the same constellations as those explorers, in the same method of travel.

He said the voyage proved it possible for those explorers to have completed trans-Atlantic voyages long before later documented trips.

Gorlitz showed high-definition video clips of the straw-colored boat pounded by waves, and it brought audible gasps from the more than three dozen people assembled at the First Presbyterian Church in Stockton.

A projector also flashed pictures detailing the journey, from smiling faces just before launch, to a shot of a clearly heart-broken Gorlitz onboard the rescue ship as the last bit of the ship -- visible over his shoulder -- slipped into the ocean.

The Abora I and II had successful runs in the Mediterranean Sea, and running the Abora III across the Atlantic was ambitious.

"I thought it sounded crazy, a big laundry basket," said Ken Hayes, who runs a Hunterdon County-based environmental marine research company. He met Gorlitz as the boat was assembled in Jersey City last summer and served as a contact and educator in the United States when the Abora III was at sea.

Looking forward, Gorlitz said there will be an Abora IV. Over the next several weeks, he will meet with various contractors, financial backers and scientists in hopes of launching the new craft in the summer of 2010.

He learned from the Abora III that it is indeed possible to sail without modern equipment on a boat with "no metal, no pulleys" or other items taken for granted on today's vessels.

"I'm sure we'll do it," he said.
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